Posts Tagged ‘medical insurance’

Continuing from where I left off, regarding China’s basic medical insurance system covers more than 1 billion of the country’s 1.3 billion population. This is on the basis of the report issued by the Ministry of Health.( Xinhua)

The State Council has promised the country would increase the basic medical insurance coverage to at least 90% by 2011.

Having corrected my figures given earlier let me add that China is a state of mind. During the Cold War we read of a bamboo curtain something similar to the Churchillian Iron Curtain. Such curtains are often figments of our own fear. China has always been misunderstood and even vilified for the simple reason that the West found it ‘inscrutable’. We are all on a slowboat as far as anything strange and exotic land is considered. We do not take pains to understand what seems alien or different from the accepted norms. For paddles we use mistrust and hackneyed prejudices. Like the fable we are hares hiding behind a false sense of superiority. China has lot to to teach the world as it has much to learn from others.

I just came across an item titled ‘Billing the Doctor for Your Time’. First let me quote: ‘Over at the Economix blog, Princeton economics professor Alan B. Krueger applies economic theory to the doctor’s waiting room. He writes about the “opportunity cost” of being a patient. Any student of Econ 101 knows that economists measure costs by opportunity costs, meaning everything that is given up to get something else. Time spent interacting with the medical system could be used for other activities, such as work and leisure. Moreover, spending time getting medical care is not fun. This time should be counted as part of the cost of health care’.(Tara Parker-Pope on health-Feb 9,’09) Who needs healing: You or your physician?